"Reunion" very much serves to introduce Lauren Reed:
NSC agent and the wife of Michael Vaughn. Melissa George who
plays Agent Reed is dropped right into the thick of things and
is sitting on a bit of a slippery slope coming between a very
popular relationship. You can’t help but wonder what the
writers were thinking when they decided to introduce the plot
line – the idea will alienate the Sydney/Vaughn shippers
and the very nature of the idea will take away something which
was so vital to the series. Or could they be trying to re-capture
the romantic tension that existed before Syd and Vaughn hooked
up in the first season?
The idea isn't original. It's not unique to Alias and it has
been tried before. At the end of its first season, Roswell introduced
a character with the intention of coming between a popular romance
which defined the series in its early episodes. As you might
expect, the character, Tess (Emilie de Raven), was hated throughout
the fan base and future declines in the series were instantly
attributed to the actress. What is to stop this from happening
on Alias? Not a darn thing. But this episode does a damn good
job of bringing us onto the side of Lauren Reed.
George takes her first steps into the Alias
light, and does a wonderful job. Although the garbled accent
is not in her favour,
the actress overcomes any problems and “Reunion” does
a brilliant job of showing who she is and why she shouldn’t
instantly be hated. And although the chemistry between George
and Michael Vartan isn’t quite as intense as what we had
between Vartan and Jennifer Garner, all three of the actors do
an excellent job. One scene in particular, the briefing room
arguement, was very heated and by the episodes end the love triangle
is brought to a boil.
Almost as quickly as the writers establish
who Lauren Reed is, her reason for being part of the task
force is clearly
laid out – she
will be holding an investigation into the murder of the Russian
diplomat whom Sydney killed during her two year absence. As if
the fact that she is coming between an immensely popular romance
wasn’t enough. It’s doubtless that heads will butt
in the future over the investigation. And with Lauren's dealings
with Sloane, we have the slight question mark over her loyalties.
But with a few jibes from the manipulative bastard himself, it
is made clear she is not working with Sloane.
The rather unwanted isolation of Sydney and
Vaughn did have one very surprising and very positive effect – Sydney and
Weiss’ friendship took another mighty step forward. And
that’s not a reference to their drinking tournament at
the beginning of the episode. At “Reunion’s” end,
Weiss gives Sydney a copy of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland – the
one thing she had before his missing time that was so special
it kills her not to have it anymore (other than Vaughn of course).
The whole thing was very moving and its about time Greg Grunberg
got to stretch histouchy-feely side instead of just taking the
back seat in some of the action sequences or as the comic relief.
The Weiss/Sydney scenes were far more compelling than any of
the Sydney/Vaughn moments so bravo to Garner and Grunberg!
Even the final mission to the missile silo
was a let down, and you couldn’t help but notice that several key characters
don’t seem to be doing anything of substance. Dixon has
become Mr. Briefing, spending his time talking about the kinds
of operations he should be participating in, while Marshall joins
the ranks of Lauren’s investigation into the diplomat murder.
Jack on the other hand was given a little high-risk mission of
his own to thwart Lauren’s investigation without anyone
knowing which held a much higher entertainment level than the
silo mission itself. And to top it off, the villain you love
to hate, Mr. Sark, was given a third rate reason for taking control
of the silo.
Not as strong as what Alias the episodes usually provides, but
the Sydney and Lauren moments are well worth it.
